Two-Sides
by SOLDIERNichole
Summary: Coming back from being in a psychiatric-ward after the death of her mother was one of the hardest things Heather had ever done. Moving to a new place to escape from the small town rumors was a relief to her. Or it should have been. After finding an old tome, Heather starts to see things she knows shouldn't exist, and even worse, her young brother sees them too. (Eventual Hoody/OC)
1. Chapter 1

Deep green pines and firs zoomed by as Heather watched from the back-seat of her fathers car. Laying on her back, head resting on a pillow that was leaned up against the car door, ear-buds blasting music into her ears. The grey skies outside reminded her of the stale grey uniforms they were forced to wear in the hospital. Shaking away the memory, Heather shut her eyes and sighed heavily, focusing on the music she played.

Heather wasn't sure how she felt about moving across the country, from the beaches of the Carolina's to the mountainous peaks of the Rockies. Phillip, her younger brother, was saddened by leaving, but also excited about the mountains and new friends. Their father, Xavier, hadn't really said why they had left, but Heather knew it was because of her.

She had spent six months in a psych-ward after trying to kill herself after her mother died of stage-four breast cancer a year ago. When they had put her on Lithium after being diagnosed with Rapid-Phasing Bi-Polar Disorder, she stabilized and was released. She had been shunned for the remainder of the school year and was miserable. They left to give her a new-start.

Heather looked at her father, an eye-brow raised, when he reached back and tapped her arm.

She could tell he was talking, but with her music on, she couldn't hear him. Turning off the heavy rock music, she pulled her ear-buds out and sat up.

"What?" She asked and Xavier chuckled.

"I said, we are about five minutes away, so get your stuff together." The blonde man told his daughter, who silently began to put all her sketch pads and journals away into a bag that she stored them in. Heather then mussed with her short black pixie-cut hair to put it back in place, bangs trailing down her high cheekbone on the left side.

The fir trees thickened as they turned down a long-winding road, their new driveway, as they went up to the house. About a quarter of a mile from the house the forest cleared completely, a large fenced in clearing with a few trees beside the house giving the small two-story a country feel.

Heather kicked the seat in front of her, waking up the napping eleven year old, making him grunt and look around groggily.

"Wha-?" Phillip mumbles and then looked at the house and gasped in surprise. "Oh, it's so cool!" Xavier chuckled as the movers drove up behind them, parking the car under the car-port. Heather quickly got out of the car, stretching her cramped limbs from the three-day drive to the Colorado mountains. Behind the house, about twenty or so miles away, a few snow-capped peaks roase, and standing where the house faced, showed the valley and the town about ten miles away, hidden just behind a small peak.

Phillip dashed past his sister, immediately running up to the closest tree and jumping up into the branches like the monkey he was. Heather rolled her eyes, running a hand through her pixie-cut black hair. Bi-colored eyes took in the surrounding, one green and one blue, keen eye-sight looking at the trees and the mountains. She could learn to like this place.

The inside was better than she had expected. The floors were all hard-wood, cedar in fact, giving the house a wonderful woodsy smell. The windows had been replaced and the walls were painted an earthy olive and a muddy brown color. The inside was clean and bare of furniture and decorations, which would soon change.

Heather went up the spiral staircase to where her father said her room would be, along with her own bathroom and walk-in closet. Her room was painted a light beige which would go well with her black, green, and brown schemed furniture and décor.

XXXXXXXXXX

It took the movers about an hour for them to unload the truck and leave, leaving their furniture in place and the small house nearly filled with boxes of stuff. Xavier had labeled everything, Phillip and Heather beginning to take each box to their appropriate destination. Two boxes went to the bathroom, seven went to Phillips room, four went to Xavier's room, three to the kitchen, and six to Heathers room.

"You both can go unpack and straighten your rooms for now. We won't worry about everything else until later." Xavier instructed his children, who nodded and went to their appropriate rooms.

Heather's bed was placed into the near right corner of the room, pagoda lamp next to her bed, her dresser next to the walk in closet and her desk facing the window that was in the opposite wall of the bed, facing the mountains and having a beautiful view. Heather grabbed the medium box, labeled 'Heather-Bathroom', and went into the said attached room, through her empty closet.

The bathroom was standard, having a sink, toilet, and glass shower. Heather removed the box cutter from her back pocket and sliced open the tape holding the brown cardboard shut. Removing her shampoo, conditioner, body wash, razor , and face wash; said items were placed on the shelf inside the shower, the teen meticulously having all the labels and pumps facing outwards. Everything else was simple hair-care that her styled hair required on a daily basis.

Next she began to unpack her clothing, all her hang-up items going into the closet neatly organized by what item of clothing they were: going from t-shirts to long sleeved-shirts, to shorts, to skirts, to jeans, to dress pants, then to her few plain dresses and one fancy night-dress. Shoes were also placed neatly in their matching pairs on the floor, accessories being placed into fabric storage cubes, also organized by type: belts, arm-covers and gloves, bracelets, and winter hats, stored on the shelves above the hanging clothes.

Heather looked at her bathroom and closet, mentally approving the neatness and organization of her space. She was by no means OCD. Heather had always been a neat and organized person, having the neatest binders in class, organized book bags, and cleanest lockers out of everyone in school. People called her OCD, but she wasn't. She simply liked to be organized, having no mental-tick that made her absolutely HAVE-TO clean or organize anything. She never went to other peoples houses and started to clean, she was content when they were, but her space would be what she liked.

Heather finished unpacking her closet and dresser before she went for the remaining two boxes. One whole box being her fish-tank and supplies. Resting in the ten-gallon tank were several large plastic baggies with her fish safely stored inside. This box had rode in their car with them, Heather refusing to sell or store her fish elsewhere. Taking out the tank, she set it on her dresser and removed the plastic baggies, putting a capful of water stabilizer into the bottom of the tank before lugging the large tank into her bathroom, filling it up half-way with water.

Setting the tank up on her dresser was an easy task, placing the filter onto the tank wall and the aerator into the bottom, pouring the green, brown, grey, and black pebbles into the bottom to hold down the aerator and the underwater plants. In went her fish, four guppies, three tiger barbs, five mollies, and one small koi that she had rescued from being left at their old home's koi pond.

With her fish tank set, and it's occupants busily exploring the sudden change of environment, Heather went to the last box and opened the box labeled 'Electronics'. Pulling out her alarm clock, she plugged it in alongside the pagoda lamp and set it on the shelve, easily reachable from the bed. Next she grabbed her desk lamp and attached the clamp onto the back of her desk for extra light.

Her laptop, Bamboo tablet, iPad, and Kindle were also pulled out and set at the desk in their places, the Kindle going into the drawer and the iPad being stored onto the shelf along with notebooks and novels, on the shelf below her desk drawer. The laptop was set up and booted up, the tablet being connected to it and turned on. Heather never used her touch pad anymore, always using the Bamboo to move the mouse from the tablet.

Opening her iTunes she played music softly, shutting her laptop and getting up to change clothes. Her closet had a laundry chute that went down into the basement, Xavier said it was working. Heather opened the creaky chute door and glanced down the dark tunnel. No way she would put her clothes down there without checking it herself though. Changing from her grungy traveling clothes she ut on a pair of sweatpants and a tank-top, leaving her dirty clothes on the floor, for now.

Heather went down into the basement, flicking the switch to illuminate the dusty sub-terrain room. Sure enough, there was the laundry chute across the room, underneath it a fabric clothes hamper. Satisfied with the state of the laundry chute, Heather returned to her room and put the clothes down the chute experimentally, hearing them land in the basement floors below.

"Heather!" Xavier called her, turning her attention from the clothes hamper to her father, shutting the creaky door and going to where his voice called her. He held a medium box, labeled 'Heather- Pj's' and handed it to her.

"Huh. Must have missed it." Heather told him as he gave her the box and he nodded, smiling a bit at her.

"Yeah, how's it coming?" Xavier questioned and Heather shrugged.

"I'm nearly done. Just this box." Heather hefted the weighty box to emphasize she mean the one she held. Her father nodded, smiling at her soflty.

"I'm ordering pizza later, so just take it easy, those trails out back are pretty nice, despite some work needing to be done." Xavier said and Heather nodded a bit.

"I'll go look at them. I'm sure Phillip will want to go." Heather said, turning from her father and going back up the stairs. The box was unpacked into the dresser and the boxes were folded and put into the attic, the large, even more dusty room reminding her of the attic, save a lot creepier. Heather didn't take much time in the attic, quickly leaving to escape the creepy atmosphere.

XXXXXXXXXX

Heather walked through the paths quietly, watching her brother carefully as he ran about in excitement. His dark blonde hair matched Xavier's along with his green eyes and tan complexion. She was the exact opposite. Her skin was like porcelain, dark hair, and her eyes were each a different color, one blue and one greenish-grey. Phillip would be wider than Heather, his older sister graced with a lean, swimmer's anatomy, while he was burdened with youthful chub and endurance.

"Heather, look! It's a toad!" Phillip exclaimed, holding out his hands, in which sat a fat, wart-covered toad, making the seventeen-year old flinch back at the gross looking creature.

"Phillip, put it down! You'll get warts!" Heather chided and Phillip rolled his eyes, releasing the terrified amphibian to hop away into the underbrush.

"You're no fun, Heather." Phillip complained and the teen shook her head.

"If I let you have fun, you'd be sick, hurt, or dead already, Shrimp." Heather reminded her brother who shrugged.

"You're probably right." Phillip said, just before looking into the woods again. "Woah. What are those?" Phillip pointed to a carved tree trunk. Heather peered to the tree he pointed at, surprised to see a tree marked with a circle crossed through by a large 'X'.

"Huh, beats me. Could be a property marker, or a trail marker or something. I'll ask dad when we go back." Heather said, running her fingers across the carved bark.

"It looks weird." Phillip stated, Heather zoning out as she inspected the mark. The circle was so smooth, strangely looking like one single continuous mark. It would have been extremely hard for anyone to do this with a simple knife. The grooves were so deep and smooth, like someone had dug a thick knife into the bark, all the way down to the wood.

A rain drop suddenly plopped right on the tip of Heather's nose, breaking her concentration. Looking up, the rain suddenly started, Phillip groaning and Heather simply putting her hood up.

"Let's go home, Heather." Phillip moaned and Heather nodded. They began to trek back through the trail, the trees above them making what drops fell big and heavy. Heather paused as her phone began to vibrate, pulling the device out of her pocket.

"Hello?" Heather answered.

"Heather, are you two heading back?" Xavier asked concerned.

"Yeah, we are just to the tree line now." Heather replied, earning a relaxed sigh from her father.

"That's good. I just ordered dinner, so it should be he-" Heather yanked her phone away from her ear as a terribly loud static began to over-take the call. Blinking at her phone, she looked at it, the screen itself even being fuzzy, which had never happened before. Through the static she could see she had perfect reception, making the static unexplainable. Heather ended the call, her phone blinking back to it's normal screen before shutting off without her touching the power button.

"Weird." Heather commented as her brother looked back at her and they continued on.

XXXXXXXXXX

A/N- First chapter! Aw yeah! For the readers, I'm estimating this to be about fifty or so chapters, but don't freak out! The chpters will be around 3000 words each unless I plan a long one, then you will be warned priorly. No Slendy action in this chapter, but it will come in chapter four I think. I'll try to make the chapters as interesting as possible until then. Please read and review! ^^ Reviews are my feul and they make me write faster.


	2. Chapter 2

Heather was perturbed as she got off the bus. Everyone was too loud and annoying, even though they weren't speaking to her. She had gotten some curious looks from a few guys on her bus, though she had expressed disinterest by glancing at them blankly and then looking away. She didn't like boys; they were rude, fickle, and petty.

The school had a simple layout, each subject having it's own hall. She had Math first, going to the hall and the room number. Heather looked around, the layout of the classroom pretty standard. All desks faced the front and were lined up in neat lines, five to a line.

Heather quietly took a seat in the back, by the teachers desk, and pulled out a sketch pad, drawing quietly. Heather wasn't a bad artist, a lot better than most, but she never thought it was worth anything. Art being nothing except a pastime for her.

The teacher making a surprised noise when he walked in, seeing the new student sitting in the seat. He was middle-aged, dressed professionally, and had salt and pepper hair. He blinked at her, Heather glancing up at him with her eyes, not moving from her paper.

"Ah, yes, you must be Heather Carters." He said smiling tightly. She said nothing. She could read him like an open book. The school had sent her teachers her medical file, showing them that she had psychological problems, and putting on their red flags. The teacher was frozen, looking at her and glancing around a bit.

"Uh, normally the student don't show up this early-"

"Good, then no one will hear me." Heather looked up at the man. "Don't look at me as if I'm going to explode. You will find that I am an excellent student and I require no addition worry or supervision than the rest of the class.." Heather spoke monotonously to the older man, who sat dumbfounded and silent.

"I see. You sound confident enough." The man said, seeming assured by the tactful reprimand. "My name is Mr. Walters, and I will be your Mathematics teacher." He went and sat at his desk. Heather went back to drawing and sat in silence as she drew, pencil smoothing over the paper to draw out a fire-breathing dragon.

The first students to walk in were, of course, loud and obnoxious, chomping loudly on school breakfasts and sloppily drinking carton milk. Disgusted by their vulgarity, Heather began to sketch out the trees behind the beast in her sketch pad.

"Hi there, who are you?" A soft spoken voice called Heather's attention. Green and blue eyes looked up and met hazel-grey. A pretty blonde girl stood their, smiling softly at Heather. The dark haired girl was soothed by the blondes presence, a peaceful serenity surrounding the fair skinned girl.

"I'm Terri Johnson." Terri introduced herself, Heather smiling back at the girl.

"Heather Carters." She replied and Terri smiled sitting down at the desk beside Heather.

"I've never seen you around before." Terri stated with an inquiring hidden in her voice. Heather nodded in confirmation.

"I just moved here last week. We couldn't make it before the first day of school." Heather told Terri, the blond girl listening intently.

"Well then, welcome to Moors High!" Terri said and Heather nodded in thanks. Heather looked at the door as Terri's eyes averted from her to the door. A girl was coming over, a short dark brown emo cut with long bangs over her right eye. The sharter parts in the back were spiked, similar to Heathers own hair.

The way they dressed couldn't have been any more different. Heather was dressed in a black hoodie and black jeans with black flats. This girl wore a bright lilac hoodie with light grey jeans and heeled black boots. Better yet, the eye that was showing was teal with a slitted pupil.

'Contacts….' Heather tought to herself as the girl sat down beside Terri.

"Hey J." Terri greeted with a smile.

"Hey. Who's this?" J asked, her voice surprising Heather with it's husky rasp.

"This is Heather. She just moved here. Heather, this is my friend J." Terri introduced us. The teacher decided at that moment to begin class.

Math was easy for Heather, numbers just coming to her naturally, but the functions they were doing were beginning to give her a headache. Finishing her work sheet, she handed it off to the teacher for grading and then rubbed her temples. J glanced at Heather now, seeing the relieving action from the corner of her eye.

Class finished quickly, Terri walking J and Heather to their next class, they had it together, Biology. Terri waved before going to her class in the next hall, English. Heather sat in the back again, J sitting in front of her.

The teacher had gone out to get some copies of work she needed more of, a few boys beginning to snicker as she left. J let out a quiet but exasperated sigh. Heather looked at the girl in front of her, tapping her arm to get her attention.

"What's wrong?" She questioned curiously. J shrugged.

"It's nothing really, just boys being stupid and calling me a transvestite because I dress like a guy and have short hair." J explained and Heather frowned a bit. That wasn't very nice of them, plus, Heather herself dressed like a guy most of the time and had short hair.

"Just stick your tongue out at them, theres no real come back for that." Heather suggested, making J look at her with an amused half-smile.

"And it's immature enough so that they understand it." J added on and Heather nodded.

"Exactly."

XXXXXXXXXX

Heather sat at the lunch table with J and Terri, the three talking about random things; Where Heather had come from, idiots in classes, and so on and so forth. Terri looked at Heather.

"Have you heard about the hunters yet?" Terri questioned and J rolled her eyes.

"Here we go again." J grumbled and Terri shover her shoulder. Heather looked at them with a confused glance as if asking for an explanation.

"Three hunters went missing in the woods last month. They havent found any bodies or any real traces of them." Terri said, sinking the table into an eerie silence.

"They probably just got lost or something." J dismissed after a moment, earning a solid glare from Terri. Heather frowned a bit.

"Strange. Maybe they will turn up soon, right?" Heather looked at Terri who shrugged in doubt. The rest of the school day went by fairly quickly, getting back on the bus, not having noticed Terri on it earlier. They sat together and chatted on the way back to their homes, Terri getting off before she did.

As Terri got up to leave, Heather caught a glimpse of something familiar. Drawn onto her wrist with a pen, was a circle with an X through it.

.

.

.

A/N- Sorry this one is a bit shorter than the first one. The next chapter will be longer. Leave, a review and let me know what you think. Check out my DeviantArt page, my User is the same as on here, SOLDIERNichole.


	3. Chapter 3

A few weeks had passed here and already they were on Winter Break. Two weeks of freedom from teachers and snobby students. Of course that one teacher,Mrs. Dull for English, had assigned a small project with an excerpt from Charles Dickens 'The Christmas Carol', already done by the time Heather got home the afternoon it was assigned.

Heather sat in her desk chair by her dresser taring at her fish tank, watching the colorful little creatures dart around on the inside. Heather's mind was racing, eyes flickering from fish to fish, watching and predicting their movements as they swam about. The fish were one of her tactics for not having a full blown Manic episode; the quiet activity of watching her fish kept her calm and in reality. Her hair was flat today, not having fixed it when she woke up.

It was snowing outside, Heather could hear Phillip downstairs begging Xavier to go outside and play with him, their father grudgingly accepting and making sure Phillip got his coats and mitts on. The front door opened and shut, leaving Heather inside alone.

Heather stood and pushed her chair back towards the desk, rolling across the hardwood floors to its resting position at her desk. Heather went downstairs and into the kitchen going to get something to eat. The Christmas tree in the corner blinked with several strings of white lights Xavier had wrapped around it earlier in the day. As Heather mad hot chocolate and a Nutella sandwich, a snowball hit the window, making her jump and spill hot cocoa powder on the counter and floor.

Heather glared out the window at the yellow jacketed figure, eyes narrowing a bit as it ran off into the woods. Xavier didn't have a yellow jacket…. And that was too big to be Phillip. Probably just some jackass wanting to see her jump. Heather got a rag and began to clean up the powder, getting another packet to replace the lost powder.

Heather atequickly and carried her cocoa up to her room, sitting at her desk and watching Xavier and Phillip chuck snowballs at each other. Popping her Lithium and Seroquel, Heather downed them with a swig of her hot drink, grimacing at the taste left in her mouth. Setting her drink aside, Heather pulled out some paper, starting to doodle mindlessly. Heather stared at the paper after a few moments.

Circles with 'X's through them, littered the paper in random places. Heather made a face, being reminded of something she had seen once before. Unable to pull back the memory of seeing this, Heather put it aside. Pulling out another paper, Heather started to sketch the figure that threw the snowball at the kitchen window.

The figure was male, definitly, having sloped shoulders and a hood over most of his face. He wore dark jeans and boots coated with snow. Heather left the face blank, unsure of what it looked like, sketching in the trees that were behind him. The opening and closing of the front door disturbed her, Heather's blue and green eyes looking down towards the front door below her. Phillip was laughing loudly as they came in.

"I won!" She heard his muffled proclamation. Heather smirked and shook her head, turning back to her drawing. Now Xavier's voice bothered her.

"Heather! Can you get the boxes of ornaments from the attic?" Xavier called and Heather stood from her desk going to the attic. She didn't like the attic, but since Xavier fixed the light switch and replaced the light, she felt better about it.

Heather opened the attic door and squeaked, quickly shutting it again from the freezing outside air. Steeling herself Heather opened the door again and entered, looking around for the boxes. Heather quickly found them and grabbed the ornaments, retreating quickly back to the warmth of inside. Heather carried the two small boxes downstairs and set them on the coffee table.

"Got 'em!" Heather called and Xavier spoke from the kitchen.

"Open 'em up and let's see what we got." Heather opened the boxes and stopped, seeing a leather-bound book in the first on she opened. Heather grabbed the fridgid book and gently opened the pages. Foreign words and symbols were inside the pages and Heather squinted her eyes at it. Hearing her dad start to come towards the living room, Heather quickly shut it and put it up her sweater, hoping he wouldn't notice it. She wanted to take a closer look at it.

"Thanks, Heather." Xavier nodded to her and Heather went back upstairs. She took the book from under her shirt and looked at it. The binding was old and the leather cracked from getting cold and worn. Heather placed the binded side half-way over her vent so it would heat up faster and she sat at her desk again, going to draw.

"The hell….." Heather stared at her paper, the drawing having a scribbled circle with an X through it, right on top of the hace of the figure she saw. She didn't draw that. Heather grabbed the paper and went back downstairs going to Phillips room. Phillip was staring out the window, still facsinated with the falling snow.

"Phillip! Did you draw on this?" Heather asked showing her little brother the picture. Phillip looked and grabbed the paper scrutinizing it.

"No….. Why did you put one of those symbols on his face?" Phillip inquired and Heather looked at him.

"What symbols?"

"Those symbols on the trees! You said they were land-markers or something." Phillip said and Heather looked at the drawing again. Now she remembered. Those markings were everywhere out in the woods, but why had one showed up on her drawing? Maybe she did draw it and didn't realize it. It was the only real explanation for what happened. She had been drawing them earlier for God-Knows-Why.

Heather nodded a bit and left her brothers room. Heather checked the book when she returned to her room, finding the binding loose and pliable again. Heather opened the book to the first bage, the hand written entrée's, or what looked like entrée's, in some foreign language. Heather held the book open and snapped a picture of the words. Opening her small blog where she put her pictures up she posted the picture of the strange journal.

'If anyone can tell me what language this is, or possibly a translation please PM me, I found this in our attic and I've never seen it before.' Heather typed and submitted the picture. Almost instantaneously a response came from a strange username.

2%MjSH** says:

"Great, you found it. We've been waiting."

Heather froze and blinked at the message. Was this a joke?

Heather/3 says:

"Are you pulling my leg? Don't play like that."

She waited a few moment.

2%MjSH** says:

"We don't have time for games, Heather. Youcantsavehim."

Heather/3 says:

"What the hell?! What is wrong with you,you creep!"

Heather scowled at the screen and pressed the 'report user' button. As soon as she clicked her computer crashed, showing nothing more than a blue screen for a few seconds before cutting off completely. Heather stared at it, looking out her window.

A tall figure wearing a suit stood there, where their driveway cam around the hill. She could tell he was very tall because the six foot tall fence was dwarfed by this creature. She couldn't tell if it was there or not, but it looked like it had no face. Heather reached for her phone, not taking her eyes off the figure, opening her camera app and snapping a picture of the creature. Heather looked at her phone for a moment to see if it came through, which it did.

Heather looked back, only to find the creature had disappeared. Heather swallowed thickly, standing and moing away from her window, curling up in the corner on her bed, using her phone to post the picture on her blog.

'I don't know what the hell this is, someone tell me. I live in the Northwest of the USA.'

Heather locked her phone and set it aside, hugging her knees and her eyes flickering around. The blog user and the whateverthehellitwas had freaked her out. Heather must have fallen asleep, she looked at the clock and it was 7:30, the sun having just set outside. It was 12:30 when she last checked. Heather grabbed her phone, checking the blog, having two replies to her blog entrée.

SN-JH says:

"That looks like it is the Slenderman. You've never heard of him?"

2%MjSH** says:

"Youshouldstarttorunnow. _P15T"

Heather stared at the second message. 'You should start to run now'? Why should she run? Heather looked at the first message and narrowed her eyes a bit. Slenderman? What was that? Heather quickly pulled up a search engine and typed in Slenderman.

"The Slender Man is an alleged paranormal figure purported to have been in existence for centuries, covering a large geographic area. Believers in the Slender Man tie his appearances in with many other legends around the world, include….." –Creepypasta Wiki

"…Slender Man generally appears (in modern times) as a tall man in a black or grey suit, red or black tie, and white shirt, with no eyes, mouth, or clearly defined facial features. It has no hair, and generally has normal-looking bare hands. Slenderman typically is depicted in imagery and literature as between 6 and 15 feet tall, depending on the situation, and in video as around 6-7 feet tall. Because of its inexact nature, and differences between series, no one has yet determined what it is…" -Slender Wiki

Heather read the articles silently. Did….. Did she really see this thing? Heather looked at the picture on her blog and blew up the portion where the creature stood. It definitly could have been a tall guy wearing a suit, and there weren't any features on the face of the man. Why was it there though.

Heather closed out the wikis and the blog, setting her phone aside and powering up her computer. And what was with the cryptic messages? P15T? 2%MjSH**? Who were they? Why did 2%MjSH** refer to itself as 'We'?

"Heather!" Heather jumped as Xavier burst into the room. "I've called you for ten minutes now!" He looked at her concerned.

"Uh, sorry, I was dozing off." She lied and Xavier nodded a bit.

"I'm breaking out the eggnog, so let's go short stuff." Xavier goaded Heather, who perked up at the mention of eggnog.

"Did you put cinnamon and nutmeg in it?" Heather interrogated, eyes narrowing.

"Of course." Xavier said over his shoulder as he started to leave. Heather darted after him, not noticing the flickering shadows in the dark corners of her closet.

XXXXXXXXXX

Heather spent the majority of the evening helping Xavier put up Christmas decorations in the house. No one except for them would really see it, but it made the place feel more like home. Heather sat sprawled out on the couch, sugar-drunk off eggnog, giggling madly.

"Dad, did you know Santa is secretly a pedophile?"

"Heather!" Xavier cried amused, looking at her. Heather cackled at her own joke, laughing harder when Phillip stuck his head in the room looking horrififed.

"Dad, what's a pedophile?"

"When you're older Phillip." Xavier replied to his son and glared playfully at Heather. "No more eggnog for you, missy." Heather made a puppy face at him.

"But its liquid Christmas!" Heather whined and Xavier laughed shaking his head at his daughter.

"No. Your sugar highs are worse than you Manicking." Xavier joked and Heather blew her tongue at him. Heather got up off the couch and stretched her arms over her head. "I'm going upstairs." Heather spoke to no one in particular before walking up the stairs. Heather sat at her desk and tried to boot up her computer again. It came up normally, but the background picture had been changed. It originally had been a picture Heather had sketched out of a butterfly, but now it was a page full of those symbols. Heather squinted her eyes and opened her pictures, changing the background back to normal. Heather opened her blog again, finding that the picture of the 'Slenderman' thingie no longer would load and she couldn't fix it.

Heather scowled, trying to restore the picture by re-posting it. Again all that came up was a blank box with a red X in the right corner. She tossed her arms up in annoyance, clasping her hands behind her neck, chewing her lip and staring at the screen. Why wasn't this working?

Heather's eyes flickered to SN-JH and she clicked on the profile name. The profile was completely blank except for a link taking her to a different page with the User SilentNight1997 on some art website. Opening a PM box Heather typed in:

Hey SN-JH, this is Heather/3. I saw you commented on my picture, it won't load now and I can't fix it, but what all do you know about this 'Slenderman' thing?

Heather send the PM and sighed, closing out the internet. She stared at the desktop for a second, feeling her eye start to twitch.

"Are you fucking kidding me?" Heather questioned, staring at the same background that had came up with her desktop when she re-booted the computer. The symbols stared back at her, seeming to laugh at her frustration. Heather turned off the monitor and sighed, turning towards her bathroom to shower.

There was no point is worrying about it now.

A/N- Hey guys, thanks for reading if you have! If you have any suggestions just let me know and I'll get back with you. I've only watched MarbleHornets and TribeTwelve so far, so I'm taking some things from what happened in them like the pictures not changing from TribeTwelve and of course, Hoody and Masky from MH. Not really keen on writing from proxies in the Collective since they aren't very big characters in TribeTwelve. I can't grasp their characters very well, so you probably wont be seeing them. ^^ R&R!


	4. Chapter 4

Heather threw away the bloody toilet paper, grabbing anotherfew pieces to try and staunch the flow coming from her nose. 2%MjSH** hadn't posted on her blog for a week now, but she also hadn't posted anything else. It was Christmas Eve and here she was, trying not to bleed out from a nosebleed. She hadn't seen 'slenderman' again, but she had been keeping her curtains shut since that day.

After nearly a whole roll of toilet paper, Heather nose finally stopped bleeding. She threw away the bloody waste and went back to her room. Pinching some food into her fish tank, she tapped the glass to wake them up a bit. Heather was satisfied when they all jumped and began to swarm at the top to eat.

Going downstairs, Heather snagged a candy cane off of the tree, unwrapping the straight end and popping it into her mouth, planning on making a candy shank out of it. Heather walked into the kitchen and stopped, her eyes widening. On the window written in what she was pretty sure was blood, was one of those god-aweful symbols again. Quickly grabbing some paper towels and glass cleaner, Heather cleaned off the window hastily, not wanting her father or Phillip to see.

Heather threw away the candy cane, the minty sweet of the candy making her stomach turn. What if these things were on the rest of the house? Heather went and checked the rest of the windows, satisfied to not see any more.

Heather sighed and rubbed her forehead, sitting on the couch. A bunch of brightly wrapped boxes were under the tree, some wrapped by her for her family. Their stockings were by the fireplace, not yet having anything in them. Wait…

Heather stood and dipped her hand into her stocking, grabbing a hold of something and pulling her hand out. She took one look beofre flinging it down and screaming, falling back and scrambling away. Xavier and Phillip came running, Xavier crouching by his upset daughter and holding her suddenly sobbing form.

Phillip stared before looking down at the object Heather had flung. A dead black capped chickadee was laying on the ground, so freshly killed that it's wings, which were folded, now hung open as it was sprawled on it's back. It's neck had been wrung, it's bell cut open, but no blood leaked, and it lay, so freshly killed, sprawled with it's wings flapped open wide.

Heather shook and sobbed harder, Phillip running and getting a towel and picking up the bird to throw it away outside. Xavier soothed heather, rubbing her back and trying to calm her down.

XXXXXXXXXX

Xavier called the police, claiming someone had been inside there house. Heather wasn't surprised when they didn't find any evidence of a break in. Phillip swore up and down he didn't do it, Xavier was certain someone had been inside. Heather just stayed in her room curled up and rocking back and forth. She knew what it was now. She had taken the time to research a bit while the police were looking downstairs. That symbol was called 'The Operator Symbol', and Slenderman was also called 'the Operator'.

She had posed a small bit on her blog about the bird.

2%MjSH** says:

Do you like your present? We found it just for you.

Heather/3 says:

Fuck off, your all are sick bastards.

SN-JH says:

What the hell is wrong with you 2%MjSH**? Heather I saw your comment, look me up on Skype.

2%MjSH** says:

Stayoutofthisitsnoneofyourbusiness-P15T

They were inside her house. Heather looked around again for the seventh time in a few minutes, expecting something to be there every time she looked. After a while Heather started to doze off into a fitful sleep.

She knew it was a dream. Suspended drops of water hung in the air like perfectly round crystals of diamond or spheres of ice. Heather stood in the middle of all the hovering balls of water, poking one and watching it wiggle and bounce away. Upon closer inspection Heather could see them falling slowly, barely noticeable they moved so slow. Something other than the rain caught her attention.

Footsteps, normal in sound, at a slow leisurely pace were coming towards her. Heather couldn't move her feet as the footsteps grew closer, louder, and more ominous. Heather could feel her heart pounding as a figure loomed in the distance.

Extremely tall, pale white skin, featureless, long arms. It was still fifty feet away, walking slowly. In an instant, the rain started to pour sown in buckets and this figure appeared right before Heather. She had to crane her neck back to look at it as it towered over her, pale face boring down at her.

Heather…

Heather bolted upright in her bed, the lamp in her room still on. Grabbing her chest over her heart, she stumbled up and went to her bathroom. The analog clock there had it's short hand slightly passed the two and it's long hand slightly passed the one. Two'o six in the morning. Heather looked in the mirror her hair and clothed being drenched and cold, spikes slicked down to her head. Not even thinking, Heather turned on the hot water in her shower and stepped in, not bothering to take her clothes off. She was freezing, the water heating her skin was almost painful.

Heather shivered still as she forced herself to stay under the hot water, her clothes weighing her down. Why had she been soaking wet? Heather shucked off her water-logged clothes and huddled under the water, not being cold, but shaking violently.

When Heather finally stopped shaking, she turned off the water and went to her closet, pulling on a black strapless dress and sat down at her computer, opening Skype. She didn't care if it was near three in the morning now, she needed to talk to someone.

Heather's Video Call got answered the fourth time she called. The camera came up and there sat SN-JH. She was a little older than Heather, early twenties at the oldest. She looked groggy and had bed-head, glasses, greenish-grey eyes, and was very pale.

"Are you Heather?" She questioned a bit and Heather nodded.

"The first thing I have to ask is that I just had a dream…. I was standing in the rain and that… Thing…. Was standing right infront of me. Then I woke up here in my clothes, being soaking wet and freezing. What the hell happened?" Heather spewed and the woman sat there.

"Well first, my alias is Nichole, it's nice to meet you. Its about six in the morning here, so hello." 'Nichole' waved a bit. "And what it sounds like, and please don't freak out, in a lot of the Slenderman ARG's-"

"What are those?" Heather questioned and Nichole blinked again.

"They are kind of like web series, like TV shows, but home-made and put up on YouTube or something." Nichole explained, "Continuing, in the ARG's Slenderman can give people amnesia and he normally makes them do things they wouldn't in everyday situations."

"So he kidnapped me?!" Nichole put a hand up in a calm down gesture.

"Did you have any blood stains on your clothes?" The older woman questioned.

"Uh, I don't know, I was so cold and I ran into my shower when I woke up." Heather explained and Nichole sighed a bit.

"Okay never mind, if it happens again check first, but Slenderman likes to play games. If you freak out and do what you just did, makes him win. You have to keep your head about you, okay?" Heather nodded a bit, listening to the older lady's advice.

"So what exactly is the Slenderman?" Heather questioned and Nichole took a deep breathe and sighed.

"That is the only thing I can't answer because truth is, no one knows for sure. There are some people who think he is a demon, some people think he is a human turned into a monster, and some people believe he is some kind of alien or advanced life form. I personally think the first two are the closest to being correct, but it's your choice what to believe." Nichole explained and smiled a bit.

"What do I do? Like how do I protect myself?" Heather questioned. Nichole thought for a moment before shuffling with some papers off camera.

"I learned this by watching the ARG TribeTwelve, have you ever seen this symbol?" Nichole held up a paper with a symbol drawn with a thick black marker. It looked like two eyes crossing over each other in the middle making a plus with the eyes. Heather shook her head.

"Will it protect me?" Heather questioned and Juliet smiled a bit.

"This symbol is complicated, but what I make of it, it can do anything that you will it to as long as you draw it and put the meaning yu want to it. If you draw it for protectiong, then it will protect you, if you draw it for attention, then it will get attention. I'd suggest utting one on all your doors, windows, and walls. It can be as small or as large as you want it." Nichole explained and Heather quickly draw a smal version of the symbol for reference.

"And what are these ARG's? They sound like they would help…." Heather questioned. Nichole bit her lip a bit.

"I'd suggest watching Marble Hornets first, then TribeTwelve which isn't finished, then EverymanHyrbid, then DarkHarvest00. Do you have the names?" Heather jotted them down quickly.

""I saw some thing online, Slender Wiki?"

"Read it. The more you learn about it, the more you can defend yourself. Be careful with it though. The more knowledge you display the more you will attract his attention. Put one of the symbols on the back of your computer to keep it safe, and put one as every profile picture you have, it will stop them from commenting on your pictures and not let them corrupt them like they did the first one." Nichole instructed quickly.

"Could they be seeing this?" Heather looked around nervously. This was a lot more serious than she had thought."

"From your end possibly. I'd hurry with those symbols, when you draw them, think about every safe thing you have ever had while drawing it. Draw one on your wrist if it makes youre going out, but absolutely do not mention me to anyone. Not your family, not your friends, nobody. I have my own problems here on the East Coast." Nichole said, looking out her window. "Shit, I gotta go, bye." The call ended after that. Heather didn't have to dwell on what the woman said, starting to draw the symbols just like Nichole said.

She put one on her computer first, then her winder, then all of the doors, and the walls. She taped them on all four sides, not wanting them to fall off. Heather draw the symbols on both of her wrists, just to be safe and looked around. The sybols stared back at her, making her feel more nervous than safe and opened her computer, uploading a photo of one of the symbols as her profile picture for each of her sites.

Now seemingly protected, Heather sat in the corner of her bed, leaning on the joint of the two walls, staring at her room. Nothing was happening now, but Heather didn't want to sleep, she forced herself to stay awake.

At around secen thirty Phillip came in all smiles and happiness.

"Heahter, dad said it's time for presents." Heather just looked at him, seeming too quiet for comfort. Phillip paused.

"Heather? Whats prong?" Heather shook her head quickly and stood up, passing him and going down the stairs to see what trainwreck her father had made for breakfast while they opened presents.

Thankfully there were no dead birds or blood in Heathers presents or stocking this time. Phillip had retreated to his room to play with the twenty or so new action figures he had gotten while Xavier and Heather cleaned up the wrapping paper mess. Xavier looked at her when they were nearly done.

"Heather are you feeling okay?" Xavier questioned, noticing Heathers pale skin and quietness.

"Yeah, I'm alright. I probably just need to take my medicine."Heather lied and Xavier nodded, buying it. Heather quickly finished and tied the trashbag up, grabbing the few things she got and going upstairs. The majority of it went in her bathroom and closet, special perfumes, lotions, and a few accessories. The rest of it were a few big boxes of her favorite candies and a program so she could draw on her computer with her Bamboo tablet from last Christmas. She also got a gift card for a pet store which she planned on using to buy more fish and some chemicals for the tank water.

Heather started to download the program and walked away from her computer, to take a shower. She paused and glanced back at her computer. What id they had already hacked her computer and were watching her. Heather looked at her web cam, horrified to see the light on it was glowing, meaning it was in use. Heather ran downstairs, grabbing black electrical tape and scissors, going back upstairs and taping over the camera, then doing the same to her iPad and iPhone camera's. Next Heather unplugged the microphone, heart pounding at the thought of being watched and listened to.

How far were they going to go?

.

.

.

A/N- Hey guys! Another chapter for you. Little bit of action here and a cameo done by myself. XD Yes I live on the East Coast, in North Carolina actually. I also am a self-acclaimed expert on the Slenderman and the theories around him, theres nothing to really study excewpt for the Slender Wiki and the ARG's, but it's cool. Anyways, R&R and you'll hear from me next chapter! ^^


	5. Chapter 5

[WARNING! THERE ARE SPOILERS FOR MARBLE HORNETS, TRIBE TWELVE, AND OTHER SLENDERMAN ARG'S IN ANY OF THE CHAPTERS AFTER THIS POINT. IF YOU HAVE NOT WATCHED THEM, THEN I APOLOGIZE. I ALSO DO NOT OWN ANY OF THE ARG'S OR THE CHARACTERS IN THEM.]

.

.

.

.

The Biology teacher plopped the frog onto the tray, Heather's stomach roiling just at the sight of the dead creature. The boys were all over it, laughing and making the poor corpse dance. J sat next to Heather, looking anxious, but not queasy like Heather did.

"Do you want to cut-" J stopped when Heather pushed the sharp tools towards J. The brunette blinked, but looked at the intructions sheet again and waited for the teacher to say it was time to begin.

The chemical smell of the formaldehyde and preservation chemicals made Heather's nose sting and the front of her head ache. The teacher slowly explained the project again and let them begin.

Heather tried not to watch as J cut open the belly of the frog, only handing J the pins needed to hold the flaps of skin back. She tried to focus on watching J's hands. Her hands didn't waver or shake, just making the cuts as the directions instructed. Then Heather looked.

The organ's of the frog were splayed about it, some not disconnected from the body and hanging out of the body cavity limply. The frog's eyes stared unblinkingly at Heather. The room started to spin then, Heather gripping the table to keep herself in her chair. Heather thought she was telling her body to stand, but as the world went dark she hit the ground.

XXXXXXXXXX

Heather sat in the back of the car while her father drove her home. Xavier was quiet and pulled into the car port, sheltering Heather from the rain.

"Make sure you get some rest okay?" Xavier told her before Heather nodded. The school had to call Xavier to come pick her up. The teacher felt bad because Heather had asked to leave the room during the assignment, but he refused. Heather grabbed her bag and got out of the car, watching as her dad started to pull back out to go to work again.

Alone until the bus brought Phillip around again.

It was only 11 and Phillip got home at around 4 so heather went inside and up to her room. She could try to Skype 'Nichole' again. She had watched MarbleHornets and didn't quite understand the whole thing. Heather grabbed her iPad off the shelf and uncovered the front camera. Nichole was online and Heather began the call, getting an answer after a few seconds. Nichole looked different, more put together. The woman waved a bit.

"Hey Heather, what's up?" Nichole greeted and Heather shrugged.

"You know, the usual. Passing out during Biology because of frog day." Nichole made a face.

"I don't blame you. So how has stuff been going?" Nichole questioned. Heather sighed.

"I watched Marble Hornets like you told me too, I don't really get it. And one of the guys in it, the one in the yellow hoodie, I think I've seen him." Heather stated and Nichole looked at her.

"Wait which one?!" Nichole asked surprised.

"The one with the hood and the red frown face." Heather clarified and Nichole seemed surprised.

"His name is Brian in the ARG, but everybody calls him Hoody. You said you saw him?" Nichole asked again and Heather nodded.

"I'm pretty sure."

"How sure?" Heather was getting a bit irritated.

"99 percent sure, why do you keep asking?" Heather looked at her as Nichole made a thoughtful look for a second.

"The Hoody in Marble Hornets died though…. So maybe…." Nichole gasped. "Tulpa! How could I forget?"

"Tulpa?" Heather was confused.

"Yes! It's one of the theories of how Slenderman came to exist. The way that is works is that the brain has a connection the the fourth plane of dimension and when we imagine things we can prject energy into that fourth plane." Heather stared as if she was lost. Nichole stopped and sighed heavily.

"I'm sorry, this is really scientifical, but if I show you it would work. Let me explain." Nichole held her hands up.

"See how energy works is that when two energy waves overlap at the same frequency, time and speed, they form a larger energy, like when you are at the beach and two small waves hit each other and make a bigger one. Right?" Nichole looked at Heather, who seemed to get what she meant.

"Now imagine that all of these people are imagining the exact same thing, at the exact same time. All of these waves of energy are forming and colliding together in the fourth plane. The Tulpa theory is the theory that if enough energy is condensed this way then whatever imagination sparked all the energy could spawn whatever is being imagined, Slenderman, or in this case Hoody." Nichole stated and Heather narrowed her eyes.

"So people created the Slenderman?" Heahter asked and Nichole chuckled.

"Not exactly. People have a ton of theories about Slenderman, but there is absolutely no other reason for Hoody to even exist since he died." Nichole stated and Heather nodded a bit.

"What about the other guy? The one in the white mask, Tim wasn't it? Could he be real too? Like the way Hoody is?" Heather questioned and Nichole nodded.

"I would say definitely. You said you watched it, in the ARG Tim threw the mask away and drove off. Nobody knows where he is or what happened to him, I'd presume he committed suicide to try and stop from exposing other people to Slenderman. However, since Masky ceased to exist when Tim threw the mask away, people were no longer envisioning something that existed and made a Masky like they did Hoody." Nichole explained and Heather nodded.

"I never could have figured any of this out." Heather stated and Nichole smiled slightly.

"It's no problem. Are there any other questions?" Heather kept thinking.

"Not that I can think of."" Heather looked at Nichole. "Oh, what are they? I've seen people call them proxies? What are those?"

Nichole nodded a bit. "Proxies are kind fo difficult too. No one knows exactly what they are, or how they work. We just know that they do things for the Slenderman like leave clues to get you closer to him and such. They also could attack you if you get too close to something or someone they don't want you to meet." Nichole stated and Heather nodded a bit.

"How many are there?"

"There's not a definite number. I myself have only seen two for sure and three possible." Nichole looked off screen for a moment. "Speak of the damn devil." Nichole grabbed a gun from out of sight, Heather's eyes widening.

"What are you doing?!"

"Protecting myself." Nichole stated, a dog in her house suddenly barking loudly a couple times before silencing. Heather jumped when Nichole's door slammed open and a woman dressed in a black jacket and brown pants stepped through, a purple and black plaid scarf covering the bottom half of her gace from sight. Wild green eyes peered back from under the hood, seeming to glow angrily in the light.

Nichole's hands shook as she held the gun. Heather put the tape back over her camera and shut down Skype, not fast enough to not hear the bang and then sounds of struggling. Heather turned her iPad off and put it away going to her bed and curling up, deep in thought. Nichole was having the same thing except worse. They were showing themselves to her. And that woman…. Who was that woman? She seemed…. Pissed off…. Really pissed off. And how did she shut that dog up so fast?

Heather thought. Maybe getting a dog was a good idea. Phillip would like a dog and Heather was by herself a lot. The paranoia was starting to get to her, she was scared to leave her room when she was home alone. Even if her family was home. She would take about it with her dad when he got home.

XXXXXXXXXX

Phillip was estacic when Xavier agreed to get a dog. They all were in the car driving to a place that was giving away mutts that were two months old. Xavier and Heather let Phillip pick one out, gently picking up a hefty black and cream Husky-German Shepard mix. The owners bid them goodbye as Heather ended up having to hold the squirming dog in the backseat.

It's eyes were a bright blue color and it's tail wagged happily as it explored the backseat of the car. When they got home, however, the puppy whined and whimpered trying to find his siblings. Soon though, Phillip was able to distract it by playing and rubbing it. Heather watched for a few moments, before going up to her room.

At dinner time the puppy went into the crate Xavier had gotten for it. Having enough space to hold the eventually-going-to-be-huge dog. Heather was up late, drawing again. She had to stop herself from drawing Operator symbols whenever she was sketching out heads for people. It was about midnight when Phillip creaked open her door.

Heather looked up at her brother, wondering what was wrong, and why he ddin't go to Xavier who was downstairs.

"Heather? There's someone outside." Heather leapt up and went to him.

"What did they look like?" Heather questioned and Phillip shrugged, looking down and rubbing his arm. Heather shook him a little bit. "Tell me!"

"He was wearing a suit."

Heather looked around at the woods outside, not seeing any signs of a person being there. This thing, Slenderman, had just crossed a line. Heather walked out further, steeling herself an glaring through the trees, the moonlight revealing nothing to her sensitive eyes. About twenty feet into the woods Heather stopped and looked around again, seeing nothing. She knew they were watching though.

"I don't care if you scare me, if you screw around with me, if you leave dead animals in my house for me, if you haunt me so badly that I never sleep again….. But tay away from my brother. You hear me? I'm talking to all of you! Stay away from him!" Heather spoke loudly into the clear night, hearing nothing in reply.

Heather turned around to go back inside and froze. At the entrance to the woods stood the creature. She was sure now, tall skinny body, pitch black suit, bright red tie, and no face. He stood there staring at her with his blank slate of a face, if it could even be called one.

Heather grabbed her head as the static started at once, the high pitches interlaced with the fuzzy noise making her head and eyes hurt. She struggled to stay upright, managing to glare at the entity. The static got louder, the droning pitches making Heather feel dizzy and nauseous. Stumbling back a few feet, Heather fell onto her back, tripping over a gnarled root in the forest floor. The static faded and went silent, already having the desired effect on Heather.

The teen girl shut her eyes for a moment to get her bearing to stand, and opened them to find herself in her room again. Heather looked around strangely and sat up, hearing paper crinkling in her pocket. Heather pulled out the foreign paper and opened it. It read in a firmiliar style of handwriting. 'It's written in German.'

What was 'it'? Heather narrowed her eyes and stood going to her computer and opening a translator and pulling out the old book she found in the attic frun under her matress. Heather stopped and opened the book. The majority of the pages had been ripped out! Heather growled and opened the book to the first remaining page, typing the contents into the translator and putting the settings from German to English.

Heather wanted to die. She shut down her computer and walked away from it, flopping face down on her bed and covering her head with her arms.

XXXXXXXXXX

"October 19th, 1980

They are gone. All of them. My wife, my children, even out animals. All gone. The Tall Man took them. This place is the Devil's playground. Tonight I am ending all of this. The town already thinks I killed my family. I will be nothing more than a lunatic that dissapears in a bang. This end is one fit for me. I will not allow this creature to kill me. He will get no such pleasure. I pray God has mercy on me for my decisi-….."

The man sputtered blood from his mouth as the cold, white hand retracted from the man's chest. The man slumped forward into a cradle of black tendrils, easing a grip around him and dragging him from the chair. Slenderman stood there for several minutes letting the blood drip until he and the dead man vanished.

,

,

,

,

A/N- Heya guys, thanks for reading! This chapter jumped a lot, sorry about that. I have a lot of little scenes that I need ways to blend together, so thus the skipping. Reviews are really apprieciated, thanks to Levliet for reviewing. It really does make me want to write when people leave reviews.


	6. Chapter 6

The last few months were quiet. No weird shit happening around the house, no posts on Heather's blog, faceless demon-monsters watching Phillip, and Everything was okay for once since they had moved. The late April air was still frigid and there was still a lot of snow on the ground. The puppy, that Phillip had named Talon; A loving testament to the sharp claws the dog possessed, loved the snow. Heather liked this dog, seeing as he slept in her bed every night since Phillip's bed was too small for the quickly growing pup.

J was over today visiting and drinking a cup of coffee mixed with hot chocolate powder. Heather was also trying the coffee laced drink, actually finding it good.

"So J, have you heard from Terri in a while?" Heather questioned and J shook her head, sipping the coffee.

"I've heard from her parents. They said she ran away those weeks she wasn't at school." J stated a bit…. Strangely. She seemed emotionless about it, but Terri was her friend! Wasn't she?

"That's terrible! You should have told me sooner!" Heather cried out and J shrugged.

"Her parents actually asked me not to tell anyone. They think she had psychological problems." J said a bit quieter than before. Her voice held a flat tone, but her eyes were definitely saddened a bit. Heather put a hand on her shoulder.

"I'm sure she'll turn up." Heather smiled a bit at J, who nodded a bit.

"Yeah…"

Phillip ran into the house, trailing snow, Talor running in after him. The dog hit the tile floor of the kitchen and then skidded across the room before skiddering after him, barking. Heather and J laughed at the young boy and the puppy.

XXXXXXXXXX

Talon was laying on Heather's bed as she started typing up an assignment for her English class. School had been quiet for the most part, Terri still hadn't come back and J was missing a lot of school from being sick all the time, doctor's visits, and other such things. Some people had asked her about Terri, but Heather didn't tell anyone anything, knowing that her parents told J not to tell.

The clacking of the keys was steady while Heather typed the final draft of her paper, eyes flickering back and forth from the paper to the screen. Talon picked his head up and looked around, before growling softly in a puppyish way. Heather stopped and looked at the dog, watching his movements. She had never heard him growl before.

Talon suddenly stood and jumped off the bed, going to Heather and barking at the closet, growling more and looking at Heather with his big blue eyes and whimpering a bit. Heather stood up from her computer and slowly padded over to her closet, eyeing the closed bathroom door suspiciously. Talon walked with her and pinned his ears back a bit. Heather slowly grabbed the bathroom door handle and slowly turned the knob, grabbing a heeled shoe as a weapon.

Heather yanked open that door and jumped back, only to discover a mouse which ran out from the bathroom and between Heather's legs. Heather dropped the shoe and squealed loudly, Talon barking and chasing the mouse under the bed. Heather panted and held her chest, heart racing a hundred miles an hour. This house had mice?! Talon squeezed out from under the bed and proudly presented the dead mouse by it's tail to Heather, who grimaced and grabbed some toilet paper, taking the mouse from the dog.

Heather went downstairs with the mouse, Talon trotting at her feet, looking up expectantly at her. Phillip looked at her.

"Are you okay? You squealed and the dog was barking." Heather nodded.

"There was a mouse in my bathroom." Heather replied and Phillip snickered.

"You're scared of mice?" Heather thumped his head.

"Shut it you little shit." Heather snapped at him and threw away the dead creature. Talon jumped into Phillips lap, cuddling with the boy and Phillip made a face at Heathers name.

"Heather, your being mean again." Phillip pouted a bit and Heather dighed, sagging her shoulder.

"Sorry, squirt. I was just startled and I'm trying to do that paper for English." Heather walked by him and ruffled his hair, making him smirk through his pout. The late afternoon sun reminded Heather that she hadn't eaten since this morning. "And I'm probably hungry…"

Heather started to make a instant Ramen, since her dad wasn't home and she never cooked by herself. Heather turned on the kettle for hot water when Phillip called her.

"Heather? A police car just pulled up…"

Heather ran to a window and looked, sure enough a state trooper was in the driveway and a lady cop was getting out of the car.

"Phillip go to your room." Heather commanded and shut off the stove, going to the door and opening it before the woman could knock. Phillip went to his room and shut his door.

"Good afternoon officer, can I help you?" Heather questioned as the woman walked up to the door.

"Is this the Carters home?" She asked and Heather nodded. The policewoman dipped her head. "I am officer Hills, are you Heather?"

"Yeah, did something happen?" She asked perplexed at why the officer would want her.

"Is there a parent or guardian here?" Heather shook her head.

"No, but he should be home soon. Do you want to come in and wait?" Heather questioned and Officer Hills shook her head.

"Thank you, but I'll wait in the cruiser. Policy you know?" Hills smiled a bit and Heather nodded.

"I understand. It should be about twenty or so minutes, he just got off at this point." Heather affirmed as the woman went to sit in the cop car. Heather shut the door and went back to the kitchen, turning on her water. She didn't feel hungry, but she knew her medicine dulled the hunger sensation and she should eat something.

Heather was finishing her ramen when her dad pulled up and she quickly swallowed and went outside. Officer Hills had gotten out of her car and was waiting to greet Xavier, who stepped out of his car, looking confused. First he looked at the woman, then heather, then back to the woman, and then at Heather again.

"What did you do?" He questioned and Heather put her hands up innocently.

"I didn't do anything, look the house is fine!" Heather gestured and Hills chuckled a bit.

"I was waiting for you to come here Mr. Carters. I need to talk to Heather and ask her some questions down at the station." Xavier looked at the woman now confused.

"Did Heather do something?"

"We aren't sure." Then something clicked in Heather brain.

"Is this about Terri?" She looked at Officer Hills who looked at her a bit somberly, nodding once. Wherever Terri was, things were going to get a little stirred up.

XXXXXXXXXX

"Were you aware that Terri Johnson had gone missing?"

Heather sat at the table, looking at the interrogator, glancing around and to the small one-way mirror.

"A friend told me she might have run away, but not that she had gone missing entirely." Heather replied.

"Who told you this?"

"Her name is J Criole, C-R-I-O-L-E." Heather stated as the officer started to write some things down.

""How good of a friend were you with Terri?"

"I mean, we talked. I only got to talk with her for a few months before Winter Break, which I guess is were she went missing, because she stopped coming to school." Heather said and the officer looked at her sharply.

"You said she hasn't been to school in four months?"

"Yeah, I haven't seen her since before Christmas." The officer looked at Heather.

"Heather, Terri has only been missing for a few weeks now. Do you know what she might have been doing instead of school?" Heather seemed shocked and shook her head.

"I don't know… She seemed like a good student, I wouldn't peg her to miss school like that…"

"Did you notice anything odd or off about her before Christmas break?" Heather thought about this one hard and long.

"She had a mark on the back of her hand… I'm not sure which hand, but I remember it was there." Heather said, the officer quickly supplying her with a piece of paper.

"Can you draw it for me?"

Heather quickly drew the circle with and X through it, giving it back to the officer.

"Heather… Terri's body was found three days ago about a half-mile from your house in the woods." Heather blanched and her mouth opened a bit, eyes widening.

"W-what do you mean….her body?" Heather asked and the officer opened a folder on the table, placing several pictures on the table. Heather swayed a bit, feeling lightheaded and queasy.

The first picture was of a severely mutilated decomposing corpse. Many large chunks of flesh were missing and a few decomposed organs were laid by the body. There was a close up of the face, where brown and blackened decomposed flesh clung to the bloody skull's features. Heather didn't look at the rest of them, not looking at the photo's where the bones had been snapped and the marrow was sucked out by some god-awful creature. The two she had seen were enough.

"I'm gonna throw up." Heather said quickly, putting a fist to her mouth. The officer quickly supplied her with a trash-can, just in time for Heather's ramen to come back up. The officer put the pictures away while Heather was heaving. She dry heaved for several minutes, trying to get the pictures out of her head. When Heather could sit up again without convulsing, she looked up at the Officer paler than normal.

"I take it you aren't much for gore." The officer offered and Heather shook her head, quietly.

XXXXXXXXXX

Xavier drove Heather back home and Heather hugged her knees in her seat. A neightbor was watching Phillip for the night, it was already late. Xavier hadn't said anything to Heather yet, letting her mull over what had happened to Terri in her own mind. Someone murdered her friend. There was no doubt about it, but who wold have the motive to such a thing?

They got home and Heather went right to bed, burying her face in one of her pillows and covering up with the blankets, not even bothering to take her shoes off.

The clock read two in the morning when Heather woke up hearing noises. She looked around, her lamp still being turned on and glances at the wall connected to the attic as some more shuffling came from the room.

Heather stood up clowly, shifting her weight gently to make no loud creaks from the mattress. Heather grabbed the scissors off of her desk and went to her door, grateful that it's hinges didn't decide to start squeaking. The small hallway was dark and the noises, which Heather could now hear hushed voices, paused, but the voices persisted.

The door handle was cold as Heather gripped it, like ice. She steeled herself and gripped the scissors handle tightly before multitasking and opening the door to the attic and flicking on the light in the hallway.

.

.

.

.

A/N- I'm and evil little author aren't I? I love cliffhanging, don't you? XD Leave a review, and tell me who you think is in the attic?


End file.
